Domiziano Cristopharo and his merry band
of sick-in-the-head freak shows are becoming something of a
regular theme for Severed Cinema. I'll be interviewing Domiziano
in the near future, but it always appears that the anthology
films they create drop by our Severed Laboratory time and time
again. We've reviewed two of the POE collections, and
most recently, the rather unique A Taste of Phobia
-- Amicus Productions and the Herbert Van Thal paperbacks were
never like this.

The first thing which struck me in this anthology, Deep Web
XXX, is the particular choice of music. It is so haunting
and
â80s electronic, similar to the Maniac remake score and
very fitting to the subject matter.

Our bridge character apprehensively sits at his laptop and
gingerly enters the world of the web. He's very nervous, almost
shaking as he types and searches The Queen of Hearts accompanied
by identifying numbers. He selects a video â Fucks Blondes
Body Fucking. Go on, lad. Live it up!

Everybody who passes through the door to an executive club must
produce a playing card â the Queen of Hearts. Throughout the
movie, I guess to have your vid on this feed, you have to be a
card holding member because the Queen is shown many times. We're
into segment one which is called, Queens No Hearts.
It's a women only club and all bathed in luscious red. Blurry
hand-held and keeping company with a terminally erratic piano.
Masks, feeling ups -- it's a hen party extraordinaire. It is
also very classy, especially when we're introduced to their
choice of toy for the evening â a bloke tied to a chair looking
rather depressed. They're ramming food in his face and grinning.
I mean, they're feeding the poor chap â properly feeding him.
Most of the grub slops down his chin and onto his naked lap. The
get together steps up further as a girl wearing a rabbit mask
and sporting a huge strap-on cock appears.

This first story is an attention grabber. Stylish, brilliantly
realised, keeping the red hue all the way through, and nobody
speaks. We just hear the grinding music. It's filthy, sickly,
and totally absorbing.

Our central chap is having a right good chuckle watching this
whole thing unfold on his laptop. He selects another video.
Welcome to Exposure.

âPlease! Why are you doing this to me?â cries a blonde
girl as she's hauled into a room by some fella who's face is
blurred out and his voice distorted to protect his identity â a
nice touch to that one. She's secured on a chair, sobbing and we
notice a few instruments of pain by her side laid out on a
table. Yeah, this isn't going to end well for her. âI'm going
to show you what true horror is all about.â his voice does
sound a little bit like Mr. Bean with the distortion. He teases
her with various sharp implements and I began to wonder if he
was basically all words and threats, perhaps she might end up
getting bored. It takes a while but things do get a bit bloody â
a bit. This is like a more held back variation of the fake snuff
movie that Rob watched on the cinema in the original
Nekromantik.

Our surfer looks like he's either engrossed or bewildered at how
tame the last video was by standards that he's probably paid up
a subscription for this site. Never mind, segment 3, Cruising,
by our main man, Domiziano Cristopharo could save our blackened
souls as a 'Bear' wearing leather and holding a playing card
(guess which one?) stares out of the screen. What follows is a
load of blokes, dressed to impress and a healthy bit of
flagellation. Well, limp wrist puny flagellation at that. Come
on! Put some fucking muscle into it! Hell, even Kate Winslet
endured a near to real whipping in the 2000 classic, Quills.
The scene wouldn't look right, so she apparently told them to
whip her for real. Damn girl! There's a youthful buck walking
around filming all the goings-on in the dark room. The older
bloke dishing out the whip is wearing glasses and looks like a
scary librarian. âThis is what happens when you don't return
your books on time, young man!â he might say at any moment. The
chapter is, like the first, silent, but for the throbbing music.

After a while, the lad who's manacled up starts to look a bit
sore and bothered. I mean, after so many light flappy strikes,
skin will feel it. I've seen a few CP, BDSM and extreme vids
(research purposes of course!) in the past, and this is rather
tame. Meanwhile, in an adjoining room, a man wearing a dog mask
is being buggered ruthlessly by a chap in a pig mask, for a
laugh obviously.

If you personally don't have any gay friends who are very open
about explaining their conquests (yeah, you know who you both
are!) and you've never chanced upon the BDSM scene whether
homosexual or heterosexual, then you will be repelled by this
part and be like âOhhh, nooooo...â especially by the onslaught
of men's cocks and bare asses all over the place. There's a fair
amount of lubrication, fisting, and a massive shock to end
proceedings. There are more hanging chains than Hellraiser,
and the Bear who held the card up at the start, just has a
permanent pissed-off expression throughout which made me
chuckle. Miserable old sod! Cheer up, you're part of a great
segment!

Nope, I doubt our web surfing buddy expected it to finish up the
way it did. He looks rather taken aback and hurriedly selects
something else to watch instead. Deep within the catacombs, a
candle burns as a Nun silently says her prayers before a nude
woman who is crucified. This is more of a skit in amongst the
meat on the bone. After the interval, we have Sam Mason Bell's
Test 424, and three solemn girls lead by the stern voice
of Alex Mott. They are subjects in an experiment which starts
with happiness, euphoria, and leads to something else. What
particularly makes this one jump out is the great use of gritty
old school style camera, akin to the old medical videos which
feature on documentaries and YouTube, which, due to the subject
matter, is exactly where Sam was going with his entry in this
collage. The actresses play their parts well and make it totally
chilling as we watch their progression and then decline.

Feed Me More could easily be a desert and sequel
to chapter one. We witness a blindfolded girl simply being made
to eat and eat and eat. She gags, she retches, but the food
keeps on coming. I suppose it has been inspired by the 2005
flick, Feed, but succeeds in treading further in a matter
of minutes. Uneasy camera angles and close-ups share the banquet
with the viewer â but reveals that not a lot is actually
consumed by the actress, it all ends up down her chest and into
her lap. Mind you, there's a brutal shock ending like in
Cruising, so it raises a âWhooaa!â

Stalker by Emanuele Marchetto, stars Steve Swadda as a
disturbed bloke who sits before his TV, nude and swigging
spirits whilst viewing videos he has made of his latest
unknowing subject. âHe's got a small willy.â chuckled by Horror
Soulmate. I think it's the way that he's crouched down does him
no favours. As if hearing her words, he decides to have a jolly
good wank whilst wearing a stocking over his head. In his home
movie, the Stalker follows his prey and finally catches her.
âDirty bastard.â stated my Horror Soulmate. She'd been rather
quiet and engrossed by everything so far, only now in the later
part growing vocal with some choice quotes.

Stalkeris a complete mind-fuck. It's
incredible and a throwback to the old experimental shorts which
circulated in the late â80s and â90s. You know what I like about
these anthology flicks? There's always one performance which
cripples everyone else along the way â Steve Swadda gets the
honour this time around. His self-mutilation is show stopping â
he certainly stunned my Horror Soulmate into complete silence.

However, the show isn't over. The curtains are still open. Let's
not forget our internet surfer, and what secrets he has in his
apartment as he films his entry to the siteâ¦

Deep Web
XXX has a lot contained within its
pulsing throbbing walls. Sex, death, gore, chopping, torture,
slicing, it is unstoppable and out of control. Thrilling,
disturbing, and eye popping. It refuses to give any mercy to the
viewer as it beats you down.

Don't expect a story with a twist as you view the segments â
they exist to chill and delve into dark fetishes only. Deep Web
XXXis an instant underground classic with
perfect ideas, direction, lighting, acting, and especially
effects. I cannot find a weak link anywhere. Even, Exposure,
though it held back way too much, paid off in the end.

Will this anthology violate you? Will it offend some? Will it
turn on others? Yes to all of those questions and then some. You
know what to expect now, so brace yourselves and get ready.